Absentee voting for the open Beaufort City Council seat starts Monday. How to vote
In-person absentee voting for the City of Beaufort’s empty council seat starts Monday.
The special election to fill Mayor Stephen Murray’s vacated seat is on March 2. The term has about two years remaining.
Registered voters who live in city limits can vote absentee through March 1 by going to Beaufort County Board of Voter Registration & Elections at 15 John Galt Road in Beaufort. The office is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will accept votes through 5 p.m. March 1, the day before the election.
Registration to vote in this election closed earlier this month.
Mike McFee, Brantley Wilson and Fred White will be on the ballot.
McFee and Wilson both unsuccessfully ran for City Council in November, but were defeated by newcomers Neil Lipsitz and Mitch Mitchell. This is the first time White has campaigned for a council seat.
The candidates
Mike McFee
McFee, 61, served four terms on Beaufort City Council from 2008 to 2020, including as mayor pro tem from 2014 to 2020. He’s a Beaufort High School and University of South Carolina graduate, and became a real estate broker before joining Home Town Realty in 1991. McFee has served on the USCB Small Business Advisory Commission, is past chairman of the Palmetto chapter of the American Red Cross and chairman of the board of the Alzheimer’s Family Services of Greater Beaufort. He is a past president of the Greater Beaufort Chamber of Commerce.
Fred White
White, 61, graduated from high school in Charleston after growing up in Guam and has been a Realtor at Keller Williams since 2019. He has degrees from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Florida State University, as well as an honorary doctorate from Shepherd University. He’s a 21-year veteran of the Coast Guard, received multiple service medals and was ranked commander when he retired. He’s worked on Capitol Hill, served one tour with the U.S. Navy and one with the U.S. Marine Corps, and served as program manager for various federal security programs. He volunteers at church and with Beaufort’s Child Abuse Prevention Association. He was previously senior director at the American Bureau of Shipping and vice president at Universal Systems and Technology.
Brantley Wilson
Wilson, 32, is a lifelong Beaufort resident who was homeschooled while completing dual credit courses at the Technical College of the Lowcountry. He’s a University of South Carolina Beaufort graduate and has a masters from American College of Education. He also graduated from the Beaufort County School District’s Leadership Institute. After 12 years as a teacher at Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence, Wilson became assistant principal at HIlton Head Island Middle School in 2018. He’s previously served as an emergency medical responder and as a firefighter with the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department.
